I get up in the morning looking for an adventure. — George Foreman

Post navigation

#8: Build a Shed

This is part of our 100 Things in 2015 challenge. Here’s the full list.

Our house was built in 1907, which means it has a tiny garage. Once you park four bikes in there, it’s already feeling crowded, and any amount of stored stuff makes it kind of hard to get around and do work.

A shed is a great solution for this. We could use it to store all our yard tools, and also put the tools and a workbench in there. So we ordered a pre-cut kit from Costco, and waited for some good weather.

One weekend, during my retreat, the weather was perfect. We had planned ahead for this moment, and got some gravel to level out the shed’s new home. Becky’s dad came over for a few hours on Saturday and helped me get the foundation and sub-floor laid down — thanks, Ken! The next day I got a bit of help from our old buddy Brian, who helped me stand up the first two walls.

That was about when my retreat ended, and progress was slow from then on. I managed to finish out the walls and the roof, but stalled out on the last half of the instruction booklet. Then, serendipitously, our friends the Kiives asked if they could help us out in exchange for some photography. Why yes, yes you can! They’ve worked construction for years, and did a much better job than I could have. They got the whole shed ready for paint in one day.

Just in time for us to sell the house! It’s kind of a shame we won’t get to enjoy the full benefits of having a shed here, but it was a fun project, it increased the value of the house, and hopefully the new owners will get lots of use out of it. Plus, our new house comes with a shed!